Webflow vs. Wordpress: Our Top 3 Advantages & Disadvantages

Designers, developers and business owners are always looking for tools and techniques to make their workflow more efficient. But choosing the CMS you use is always a difficult task. 

In order to help with that decision, here are a few pros and cons of using both Webflow and WordPress.

Webflow

Let's start with Webflow, everyone's favourite web design and ‘no-code’ development tool. It fills the gap between software like Squarespace, Wix, and the world's most popular CMS, WordPress. With its quick design-to-development workflow, it’s perfect for web designers who are looking to get into development but don’t have knowledge of programming languages.‍

Advantages

No Need to Know Code

So let's start with the obvious, no-code!

If you’re new to web development, don’t have any experience at all, or are a web designer or a marketer, Webflow could be an excellent choice for you. It has a simple and easy-to-use no-code interface that allows you to produce a high level of web development code without knowing it.

“Not being able to write code should not be the barrier for you to be able to build something that your unique creativity can dream up.” - Ben Tossell, Founder of Makerpad.

Complete Design Freedom

Aside from the creative control that no-code provides, Webflow also allows you to do more with that control. With a CMS like WordPress, you select or pay for a theme. These are widely available and used by many people on the platform as they require minimal styling changes. Webflow removes the need for external themes, giving you complete design control over your project, even giving you the option of starting with a blank page.

Integrated Hosting With Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Last but not least, the hosting! Webflow’s hosting service is built into the platform and is ‘serverless’. This allows the Webflow servers to have a 99.99% uptime and produce some of the fastest speeds out there, with no need to update the server-side of your site. That means no need to mess with server controls. Built on top of Amazon Web Services, Webflow hosting gives you access to the fastest and most scalable hosting technology on the market.

Disadvantages

Lack of Native Plugins

If you're used to using plugins throughout your projects, you might get a nasty surprise when you load up the Webflow dashboard and find no options to install or change plugins. Webflow doesn’t offer official plugins, meaning you can’t add Webflow native extensions. Although this avoids the issues that come with plugins, it also limits the capability of your site if you can't find other solutions to replace them.

Payment Plans

Unlike its competitor, Webflow isn’t an open-source platform, meaning it can be a bit more expensive. Although it offers a wide range of plans compared to its counterparts, these can appear confusing at first, and may take some time to decipher in order to pick the most suitable one for you.

Limitations

Webflow has a few different limitations (depending on the plan you choose), ranging from CMS item limitations, total monthly form submissions and website traffic limits. Although these limitations are relatively proportionate to the price points that Webflow sets, it could still hold you back and is worth looking into before you choose your CMS platform.‍

WordPress

Now onto WordPress, the world’s most popular open-source CMS, powering over 40% of the entire internet's web pages. If you’ve just started looking into CMS platforms, chances are WordPress was at the top of your list. Due to its open-source nature, anyone can modify the software for free so you have a large amount of flexibility with your website building!

Advantages

SEO-Friendly Platform

On top of the plugins that can boost your website's SEO, WordPress also helps users who may not have a lot of SEO knowledge by pinpointing the most common keywords and phrases to use in your site’s meta description and tags. This helps you to appear at the top of the organic search results, benefiting your business’ position in the online world by boosting website traffic.

Abundance of Native Plugins

Compared to Webflow, WordPress, being open-sourced, boasts a plugin and extension library upwards of 45,000! These plugins accommodate almost every function you might need; from boosting SEO to performance analysis, there’s a plugin for you. Such plugins are perfect for beginners, as prior programming skills aren't necessarily needed to implement them.

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Affordability

One of the main advantages that separates WordPress from Webflow is the overall cost of your website. WordPress as a platform is actually free, meaning the only thing you'll need to pull your wallet out for is a hosting plan. This makes it a very affordable option, especially for people who are just starting out in web development.

Disadvantages

Over-reliance on plugins

In terms of plugin and extension availability, it is widely known that WordPress has thousands of available plugins native to the Wordpress dashboard. Although this seems good on the surface, plugins can create a variety of problems for you and your site. Not all plugins are regularly maintained and could leave your site vulnerable to hackers. Over 17% of current WordPress vulnerabilities come from the plugins that the platform can use.

Plugins often have particular functions that might not always meet your specific needs or give you the full customisation to make the functionality suitable for your needs.

Lack Of Customisation

WordPress is easy for anyone to use with its extensive catalogue of free or paid templates and themes. However, this means that multiple sites are using the same cookie cutter designs, removing the personalisation that you may want across your website. Of course, you can customise your theme to be exactly how you want it, but this requires knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP, and isn’t very practical for new developers or business owners with little coding experience.

Data Security

Being an open-source platform, WordPress is vulnerable to attacks online, whether from plugins you install or the fact that WordPress is an outdated platform, continuously getting fewer updates. On top of the potential on-site security risks, hosting requires you to look after your own server back end, and if this isn't maintained, your server could become vulnerable to hacking. If data security is something you take seriously, WordPress might not be the best platform for you.

So, which platform should you go with?

There are many pros and cons to using both WordPress and Webflow, and ultimately the choice comes down to your preference. If you're looking for a quick, beginner-friendly platform and don’t mind missing out on customisability and potentially, security, WordPress is a great option. Equally, if you have a small amount of experience and are looking for a completely custom solution packaged with on-platform hosting and don't mind the extra cost, Webflow might be the better choice for you.

Take the time to make your decision and feel free to contact us to explore all of your options when it comes to web development.